GaryÂ?s homicide rate down, but still No. 2 in U.S.

January 03, 2009

GARY (AP) -- The number of homicides in Gary fell significantly to less than one per week last year but remained high enough to rank it second only to New Orleans as the city with the most homicides per capita, a report Friday said. The impoverished city along Lake Michigan recorded 51 homicides during 2008 -- down 28 percent from the 71 recorded during 2007 -- but the rate of 50.09 homicides per 100,000 residents ranked only below New Orleans' 54.7 last year, the Post-Tribune of Merrillville reported. Its unofficial tallies cited available public records through Dec. 30. One of 2008's youngest victims, 13-month-old Josiah Shaw, was kidnapped and shot at close range in the face and groin last Jan. 28. The case remains unsolved. "I am confident there's someone who could make a call and put and end to the killer's freedom," Detective Cpl. Jeff Hornyak said. As Gary enters 2009, it does so with a police force of fewer than 230, the smallest since the early 1990s, before casino boats opened in the city and brought in new tax revenues. Some city police officers, fearing layoffs or hampered by the lack of training, equipment and overtime, have left for other law enforcement agencies, the newspaper reported. Mayor Rudy Clay will go before a state tax appeals board in Indianapolis on Monday to ask for help in getting more money for Gary. Clay will ask the Indiana Distressed Unit Appeals Board to raise state-imposed caps on local property taxes, a move he said is needed to avoid laying off a quarter of police and firefighters. Some cities including Richmond, Va., and Baltimore that have reported steady declines in homicides credit community oriented policing programs as keys to their success. Gary once had such a program, but budget cuts and staffing reductions forced administrators to eliminate it. Gary police not only need help from the state, but also from local residents. Many of the 2008 homicides remain unsolved with the killers still walking free because witnesses have not come forward with information needed to make arrests, detectives said. "I don't understand, morally as a citizen, how anyone can stand by and do nothing when they have information about a crime," Detective James Bond said, whose open cases include the Oct. 9 shooting death of Keith Rhodes. Rhodes, 22, was talking to his mother on his cell phone as he drove through a neighborhood on the city's south side when someone inside a van opened fire. He died behind the wheel of his car.